Because Writing Matters

Reading so many blog posts from my colleagues who are seeing such a divide between how reading and writing are viewed, and also about how so much more research is being done in the area of reading instruction than that of writing, I decided to revisit a wonderful book called Because Writing Matters in an attempt to find comfort. This slim volume by the National Writing Project (NWP) and Carl Nagin reflects the most recent research and reports on the need for teaching writing. Read the Story Behind the Book and how the NWP continues to increase awareness of the need to make writing as important as reading.

I was so encouraged when I joined the NWP and thought I would go back to my district and help enlighten my district, but it is true that it's difficult to be a prophet in your own land and my ideas fell on deaf ears. Only a few colleagues loved what I had to say and joined me in working on improving the teaching of writing. I encourage everyone to pick up this book when inspiration is needed and to investigate applying to the NWP Summer Institute when possible.

Identity and Writing

"Research on identity has largely neglected the domain of sexual identity, and efforts to develop gay-friendly pedagogies have not yet engaged with poststructuralism" (Nelson, 1999, p.1). Fascinating. How can research on identity exclude such an important aspect of oneself? Is it even possible to separate your sexual identity from your identity as a whole? This statement has me furious. I don't even understand how this is possible.

The earlier quote was actually from a research article on the impact of sexual identity on ESL students. Reading further, the following quote left me speechless, "some colleagues are puzzled, even perturbed, by the idea that lesbian or gay identities could have any relevance to language learning. To them, gay-friendly teaching is at best of marginal importance, of interest only to a small minority of learners and teachers (gay ones), and at worst invasive, inserting a discourse of (homo)sex into a field in which that discourse is neither relevant nor appropriate" (Nelson, 1999, p. 3).

The article then goes on to explain how sexual identity is indeed an important consideration for English Language Learners (and everyone else, for that matter), citing specific vocabulary and experiences. I found this article while researching my topic and realized I have new avenues to explore in combination with writing as healing for LGBTQ youth.

Read the article HERE

Take a Risk: Reach Out

I just want to share a little advice with my colleagues. During the process of investigating my research topic, I have made personal contact with several authors and found them to be quite accessible and willing to help. I began by emailing certain authors of journal articles that I found interesting and wanted a little more information.

Since that was quite successful, I branched out and emailed the leading researcher in LGBTQ issues who happens to be a professor at OSU. She was so wonderful and wanted to talk by phone. We had a lovely half hour conversation and she gave me great advice. I was even so bold as to ask her if she'd consider being on my dissertation committee down the road and she said she'd love to. Imagine that.

I was flying quite high after that, so I took another step and actually emailed the leading researcher in the area of writing as healing. All the other researchers in this field cite his work. He emailed me back within hours and gave me some great advice, too. He even asked me to keep him informed!

It really is a wonderful boost when these people take time out of their day to talk with you and even bother to give you some advice or a new direction. It makes all the hours sitting on your numb butt in front of the computer worthwhile :-)

Writing and Social Change

This chapter in the Bazerman text was interesting as it relates to conversations I hear with increasing frequency in the teachers' lounge.

S0 many teachers keep complaining about how texting is leading to the downfall of spelling, yet they really don't do anything to address it.

Since 'Writing constitutes and reflects social practices' (Faber, 2008, p. 269), and language/writing has changed over time, it only makes sense that we will see change in our lifetime. Instead of complaining about how it's ruining spelling instruction/skills, I would propose to educate children as to the proper times and places to use formal vs. informal spelling. We do it when we teach the language differences between Personal and Business letters, so why not text-speak?

Faber discusses how people must understand and 'strategically utilize' the genre in order to make changes to it (p. 274). This is the perfect venue in which to use something in which students are interested to help them understand the parameters of usage and be able to use both systems appropriately because it's not going away.

So Cool!

I was in Borders yesterday (big mistake!) and came across a new book that I just HAD to buy. It's called Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook by Sarah Schmelling. It's really clever and fun and has so much potential for new literacies. Just wanted to share :-)

So Much to Read, So Little Time!

Books to the left of me, articles to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle again!

~ with a nod to Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan

(and if you don't know what I'm talking about, well, you're too young!)

I feel as though I can't read fast enough to find out what I need to know to write this paper! There are so many topics that weave in and out as I try to investigate writing as healing with LGBTQ teens and young adults. First, there's the notion of writing being therapeutic to begin with. Then I need to have an understanding of these alphabet letters: LGBTQ (not to mention the other Q and I!), because people who identify as one of these populations do not all agree on their levels of oppression in our society.

As I navigate through these concepts, I also realize that social networking is another aspect of writing as healing through the connection of isolated teens before they are able to join larger groups on college campuses where LGBTQ populations are larger and more accepted. It's all so interesting, but I'm feeling quite overwhelmed with the nonlinear route this is all taking. I should be used to it by now since all the papers I've written this past year have been like this, but I just feel I have to read EVERYTHING since this paper reflects my dissertation focus and I'm just so fascinated by what I'm discovering. I do have to give a shout out to Mary for her latest post about writing as healing! Thanks, Mary :-)

Before Writing: Rethinking the Paths to Literacy

At first, it seems an odd choice to read a book about early literacy when I'm concentrating on working with teens and young adults, but Gunther Kress discusses the very foundation that early literacy provides for later life. Kress summarizes the importance of being a 'language maker' over just a 'language user.' On page xvi, he notes,

"Not only does language provide the means through which we make sense of a very large part of our environment, but it also provides us with the means to express our sense of that environment for others. Writing allows us to externalize our relation with that environment, and to communicate it to a potentially large, disparate and distant audience. Language gives us the means to put our conceptions to others; to imagine other ways of being; and to make these public, and the subject of debate."

This seemed to be a wonderful basis for my exploration of using writing as a means for LGBTQ teens and young adults to express themselves for therapeutic purposes. Especially since it is a way in which to be able to make sense of the world and tell their individual stories, as Kress points out in the later chapters. We must understand the importance that interest plays in the development of language since "we see the world from our own place, and that place differs from that of our neighbour" ( p. 90). LGBTQ writers can share their experiences in order to make meaning as they see it.

I read with interest his idea that "what people do with literacy is closely linked to an explanation of what it is 'made of' and how this mode of representation actually works; or, conversely, to explain what is or what is not really possible with this medium, and in this mode" (p. 112). It seemed to suggest that we need to continually think about literacy in new ways and I think using writing as healing needs to be explored further. I'm interested in using writing in various forms with this population and for different purposes within the therapy realm. I can see wonderful opportunities for using narratives, poetry, diaries and blogs, in both paper/pen and online. The excitement grows.